Computational architecture for remote imaging examination monitoring to provide accurate, robust and real-time events

Abstract

A method (100) of monitoring a medical imaging examination is described. The method includes receiving one or more video feeds (17) of at least an imaging bay (3); detecting, from the one or more video feeds, whether a medical procedure is being performed in the imaging bay; in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is being performed in the imaging bay, controlling a local electronic processing device (8) assigned to the imaging bay to process the one or more video feeds to extract and present information about the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay; and in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is not being performed in the imaging bay, controlling the local electronic processing device to not process the one or more video feeds.

1 . A method of monitoring a medical imaging examination, the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving one or more video feeds of at least an imaging bay;   detecting, from the one or more video feeds, whether a medical procedure is being performed in the imaging bay;   in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is being performed in the imaging bay, controlling a local electronic processing device assigned to the imaging bay to process the one or more video feeds to extract and present information about the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay; and   in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is not being performed in the imaging bay, controlling the local electronic processing device to not process the one or more video feeds.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further including the steps of:
 receiving an audio feed acquired by at least one microphone disposed in the imaging bay; 
 wherein the controlling of the electronic processing device to not process the one or more video feeds further includes controlling operation of the at least one camera or the microphone to not operate to prevent generation of the video feed and the audio feed. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method further includes:
 in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is not being performed in the imaging bay, controlling the local electronic processing device to perform one or more training tasks for a machine learning (ML) component.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the method further includes:
 retrieving a plurality of ML models; and   allocating training of at least one of the plurality of ML models to the local electronic processing device.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more video feeds includes a video feed ( 17 ) comprising a scraped controller screen video feed of a medical imaging device controller being used in the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay, and the controlling of the local electronic processing device to process the one or more video feeds to extract and present information about the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay includes:
 identifying text regions of the scraped controller screen video feed that contain text; and   categorizing the text regions as quasi-static or dynamic;   performing optical character recognition to extract content of the dynamic text regions continuously during the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay; and   performing OCR to extract content of the quasi-static text regions only at times of the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay at which content of the quasi-static text regions may change.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the controlling of the local electronic processing device to process the one or more video feeds to extract and present information about the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay includes:
 applying a first machine-learning model to extract first information from the one or more video feeds;   apply a plurality of second ML models to extract second information from the one or more video feeds; and   combining the first and second information to extract the information presented about the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the combining the first and second information comprises using a voting process. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the local electronic processing device is further programmed to provide a communication interface between a user of the local electronic processing device and a remote expert located remotely from the imaging bay to which the local electronic processing device is assigned. 
     
     
         9 . A support apparatus for medical imaging, the support apparatus comprising:
 a server computer; and   local electronic processing devices assigned to respective medical imaging bays ( 3 ) and programmed to apply machine learning models to video feeds received from their respective assigned imaging bays to extract information about medical imaging procedures performed in their respective assigned imaging bays;   wherein the server computer and/or the local electronic processing devices are programmed to determine whether medical imaging procedures are being performed in the respective medical imaging bays; and   wherein the server computer is programmed to perform training of the ML models including allocating ML model training tasks amongst the local electronic processing devices based on whether medical imaging procedures are being performed in the corresponding assigned medical imaging bays and receiving results of the allocated ML model training tasks from the local electronic processing devices.   
     
     
         10 . The support apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein:
 the server computer receives feedback from the local electronic processing devices indicative of performance of each ML model of the ML models in extracting the information about the medical imaging procedures performed in the respective assigned imaging bays; and   the server computer is further programmed to allocate the ML model training tasks amongst the ML models based on the feedback received from the local electronic processing devices indicative of performance of each ML model.   
     
     
         11 . The support apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein each local electronic processing device is further programmed to provide a communication interface between a user of the local electronic processing device and a remote expert located remotely from the imaging bay to which the local electronic processing device is assigned. 
     
     
         12 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by at least one electronic processing device to perform a method of monitoring a medical imaging examination, the method comprising:
 receiving one or more video feeds of at least an imaging bay;   detecting, from the one or more video feeds, whether a medical procedure is being performed in the imaging bay;   in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is being performed in the imaging bay, controlling a local electronic processing device assigned to the imaging bay to process the one or more video feeds to extract and present information about the medical procedure being performed in the imaging bay; and   in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is not being performed in the imaging bay, controlling the local electronic processing device to perform one or more training tasks for a machine learning component.   
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium further includes carrying out the steps of:
 receiving an audio feed acquired by at least one microphone disposed in the imaging bay;   wherein the controlling of the electronic processing device to not process the one or more video feeds further includes controlling operation of the at least one camera or the microphone to not operate to prevent generation of the video feed and the audio feed.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium further includes carrying out the steps of:
 in response to the detecting indicating a medical procedure is not being performed in the imaging bay, controlling the local electronic processing device to not process the one or more video feeds.   
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the method further includes:
 retrieving a plurality of ML models; and   allocating training of at least one of the plurality of ML models to the local electronic processing device.   
     
     
         16 . A computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the steps of  claim 1 .